Of Showers and Flowers

Sometimes when I sit down to write in this blog there’s just not enough new stuff to bother with so I have to work hard to stretch it. Today, however, is one of those days when I struggle to keep things brief. Since this is the internet and bits and bytes are ostensibly free, I shall merely vomit forth whatever strikes me and you can stop reading when you’re dern well tired of reading it. (PS: Click on any photo to get a bigger version and access the whole album to which it belongs.)

Friday it stormed terribly through the midwest and while my area of the state was spared any actual damage we still did get a fairly rough bit of storms. I was poised and ready to take advantage of this photographically with a couple of time-lapses from the 7th floor of my office building. Sadly, neither is exactly what I would have hoped for though the second one in which things are clearing out strikes me as more amusing than the actual storm.

Anyway, poke around my Youtube channel if you want to see the rest of my time-lapse rot. The last three have been rather over-exposed and I will admit that in general I’m rather suffering from an inability to make these what I would consider particularly interesting. Time will tell whether I bother to actually continue doing them.

Moving onward… yesterday morning I needed a stock photo for another blog post on the Tattered Thread so at 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday I drug out just about every piece of equipment I owned to shoot some sodden teabags. If you can’t get excited about setting up to shoot some teabags then what CAN you get excited about?

From Misc for 03-03-2012

As long as I was set up, I piddled around at random a bit too. The bananas struck me initially as sort of a ‘lost lover’ thing. It never really came together for me but I reserve the right the revisit this and try to figure out how to make it look like one banana is mourning the death of another.

From Misc for 03-03-2012

Laura was caught in the cross-fire of my morning energy as well. I like this shot because as she sits at my desk, surrounded by two computer screens and a myriad of technology she’s focused on her tiny iPhone screen. Also love the lighting as well.

From Misc for 03-03-2012

I also like this pair…

From Misc for 03-03-2012

From Misc for 03-03-2012

This mask hangs in my hallway and it never ceases to make me smile.

From Misc for 03-03-2012

So, here we are quite a ways in and we are just now about to step outside the apartment for the day. I warned ya it’s going to be one of those kind of posts. First we made our way to the Herron school of Art and Design in downtown Indy. I’ll admit that I don’t quite understand this place. It has no posted hours but the galleries were open until about 1:00 yesterday. When we left the last gallery they shut and locked the doors behind us and several people we met were confused to find they were refused admittance. At any rate, view my full gallery of photos here. I’ll just hit what I consider highlights.

I was fascinated by this sculpture of three girls jumping rope. Perhaps it’s the complexity of the whole thing, a reproduction in ceramic of what is a pretty complicated act.

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

This mask, though fairly simple, worked for me too. Or perhaps it’s just a day for masks?

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

The reason we bothered to go here at all was an exhibit on re-purposing old sofas. All in all it was not exactly all one could want from such an event. Some interesting textures though.

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

A display case shows many historical items from the school’s founding.

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

Ultimately though I found the incidental environmental sculptures more amusing like this one spilling out of the library door…

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

…and the insides of this bamboo bench.

From Herron School of Art – 3-3-2012

Moving on from art of the human-generated type, we then took ourselves unto the Garfield Park Conservatory. It’s fairly impossible NOT to take good pictures in a conservatory when they seem to be specializing in Orchids.

From Garfield Park – 3-3-2012

From Garfield Park – 3-3-2012

From Garfield Park – 3-3-2012

From Garfield Park – 3-3-2012

I’m still trying to decide whether this shot suffers from shallow depth of field or benefits from it.

From Garfield Park – 3-3-2012

Leaves, if you really think about them, are rather miraculous. Vast networks of veins all evolved perfectly to support themselves, produce food for the rest of the plant and accept nutrients from the other parts of the system. Ain’t nature amazing?

From Garfield Park – 3-3-2012

And that was the day (or two) that was.